Seems like forever since I wrote anything about religion, but today I have two items in front of me — one about the Lehigh Valley's oldest Lutheran church and the other about one of the great and mysterious relics of Christendom, the Shroud of Turin.

I'll start with the Blue Church, because I have always liked that nickname for St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Upper Saucon Township.

The congregation is 275 years old and has had three buildings on its property at Applebutter Hill Road and Blue Church Road, out in the township's pretty countryside. The current one, built in 1833, used to be covered in stucco that had a distinct bluish hue, which is how it acquired the nickname.

At 1 p.m. Saturday, Pastor Mark Swanson will lead a tour of the church, sharing the congregation's history and discussing features of the sanctuary and exterior, including the vivid stained glass windows.

Helene Parnell, one of the event coordinators, runs an art school at the church and asked her students to created church-themed works. The results will be on display in the fellowship hall after the tour.

Those doors, incidentally, are the lone reminder of the church's blue origins. The stucco was removed in the 1940s.

The exhibit runs until 5 p.m. It will include more than 60 works, from the hands of artists ranging in age from 4 to 90.

The event is free and open to the public and light refreshments will be served. The church is at 5305 Blue Church Road.

Now, on to the Shroud of Turin. Purported to be Christ's burial cloth, it bears an image of a man marked with wounds consistent with the Crucifixion — pierced wrists, a bloody forehead, a wound to one side of the torso.

No one has been able to explain how image was created on the cloth, which is housed in a cathedral in the northern Italian city of Turin. It isn't a painting. To the naked eye, it appears faint and brown, but in photographic negative, the image leaps out with startling clarity — a fact discovered in 1898 after an Italian photographer shot the first image of the shroud.

Years ago, carbon dating indicated the linen dated only to medieval times, but some researchers have argued that the test sample may have come from a part of the shroud that had been patched to repair decay or fire damage.

The provenance of the shroud can only be reliably traced to the late 14th century. Before that, it was known only by scattered references in various histories, which may well have been referring to other relics.

Still, the shroud remains an enticing artifact and the object of widespread devotion, though it has been put on public display fewer than 20 times.

Since the odds of seeing the real shroud are so slim, Holy Ghost Ukrainian Catholic Church in West Easton is offering the next best thing, exhibiting one of nine full-sized replicas of the shroud blessed by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.

The exhibit, which is free, begins todayand runs through Nov. 21. Hours are 9 a.m. to noon and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays; and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The church is at 315 4th St., West Easton.